The Indian government has said that it gave advertisemnts between Rs. 190 crore to Rs. 625 crore during the last five years to various newspapers.

Pointing out that Bureau of Outreach and Communication (BOC) issued ads to 3,500- 5,800 newspapers, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur on Tuesday submitted in Lok Sabha (Lower House), “The amount of advertisement given to newspapers by the Central Government varies across years, having regard to the various priorities, requirements and other aspects of Government advertisement and ranged between Rs. 190 crore to Rs. 625 crore during the last five years.”

Thakur was replying to a question from a fellow parliamentarian who had sought details of the advertisement policies of the government and the number of newspapers that were given government ads, apart from the amount spent during the last five years.

Incidentally, the government data doesn’t include the details of media ad spend in the electronic media and OOH category.

The Minister also informed that BOC, under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, undertakes information, education and communication campaigns through various media platforms for dissemination of information about various policies, schemes, programmes and initiatives of the government. Advertisements are released to empanelled newspapers in accordance with the Print Media Advertisement Policy, 2020.

At present 7,256 publications, including periodicals, are empanelled with the government.

BOC releases advertisements to the publications from amongst those empanelled, keeping in view the campaign requirement, available budget, target readership, and area and preferences indicated by client departments as per specified policy.